Kamala Threatens Putin!

 The news won't report this of course but I have it on the best authority* from an unimpeachable source** that Kamala will be meeting with Putin and laying down the law: "You call off the invasion of Ukraine and recall all the troops or you're sleeping on the couch for the rest of the month!"

*A small bird, chirped in my ear.

**I hold no office, therefore I can't be impeached.

QOTD - P.J. O'Rourke

 "I have often been called a Nazi, and, although it is unfair, I don't let it bother me. I don't let it bother me for one simple reason. No one has ever had a fantasy about being tied to a bed and ravished by someone dressed as a liberal." - P.J.O'Rourke 

Now imagine being tied to the bed and ravished by Anthony Weiner while Hunter stands nearby, stoned, watching. Would that not excite a liberal?

Fun With Headlines - Oil

 Found at Epoch Times:

White House Calls on OPEC+ to Boost Production as Gasoline Prices Soar

And I'm thinking: "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a source for oil from some place that didn't want us all dead? Say domestic production?" 

Observation

 Second marriages, they say, are the triumph of hope over experience.

Like voting for democrats only with a higher success rate.

Reducing Gun Violence

Here's an idea that's guaranteed to work. First off I will state that it depends on your definition of gun violence, and I'm using the lefts definition which is that anyone found dead as a result of a bullet is a victim of gun violence. Stay with me here.

Here is a study of gun deaths in my state, and here

is a breakdown of the reasons. Click to enlarge. Note that here in Colorado the number of gun deaths ascribed to suicide seems to be about 75%, which is somewhat above the national average.

Recently our legislature has proposed to set up state-sanctioned "shooting galleries" (pardon the pun) where druggies of every type could go to use any drug they wished with state agents standing by to give first aid in case they look like they may have overdosed. This got voted down when it was suggested that the first such park be located across the street from the capitol building. My variation on this sort of overlaps the physician-assisted suicide idea in that id eliminates the physician who, after all, is supposed to be primarily interested in keeping you alive.

If you're feeling despondent, simply drop by one of these new offices, and pick up a single-use Fentanyl  kit which consists of a sterile syringe with a lethal dose of Fentanyl in it. Cost to the state should be near zero as the municipal police evidence lockers likely contain enough to go around. Take this anywhere you like, and shoot the whole thing. Voila! You're dead, and the death is not attributable to firearms. Instantly, the gun death rate is reduced by 75%.

Of course there will be abuses. People will pick up their free kit and only use half of it. The junkies will still be there, but the drug dealers will be severely impacted by the low-cost competition, driving some percentage of them out of business, plus it seems reasonable to expect that some percentage of the free dope users will eventually OD anyway. This should reduce the overall homicide rate as well without as many dealers competing for the best sales locations.

Is this a win-win or what?

Trump Acts On Mental Health

President Trump set up appointments at Walter Reed hospital for mental health evaluations.

Reps Pelosi, Waters, and Lee failed to show up.

Duke Nukem Enters Dem Presidential Race

In the form of Eric "Turn in all your guns or I'll nuke you" Swalwell.

He's working on a catchier slogan. I told him that here in Colorado, all our illegal weapons are hidden in an underground bunker located under the state capitol building. If I thought he was telling the truth, I'd likely be backing his campaign but since he's a Dem, the odds of that are vanishingly small.

Internet Speeds Increase

In most places, but not so much around here:

This is no better than its ever been. Of course my provider is employing an old retired telegraph operator to relay my page requests on to whomever it is that actually provides them, so when I ask for a page I can almost hear the clacking of the brass telegraph key.

Abolishing Agencies

This early in the cycle, nothing you hear can reasonably be called party policy yet. The correct term is "trial balloon". The latest one to be floated from the left calls for the abolition of ICE whose existence is depleting the ranks of Dem voters.

So swell. I'm a republican, for lack of a better place to hang out, and I approve this message. I think the Donks should begin right now buying ads and making sure that everyone knows that illegal, as in coming across the border without papers, does not mean illegal as in selling classified information to hostile foreign operatives.

Of course the Reps could take the same tack. Call for the abolition of the Department of Education, Energy, EPA, and of course the ATF. Attach a coupon to every K-12 child good for say $7-8000/yr, payable to whatever accredited educational institution their parents want to send them to.

Promise the people that they will get the most cost-efficient energy available subject only to their state regulations. Cali will soon be as dark at night as North Korea, but so what?

Without the EPA, it's still illegal to pollute, and polluters would still be liable for damages. It would, however, be legal to remove wildfire fuel from around your house without worrying about an astronomical fine for disrupting the lifestyle of some differently abled vermin.

Then there's the ATF. Your shoelaces and the belt loops on your jeans will soon be classified as machine guns and you'll have to give them up on the premise that this will make the kids in school safer. The mandatory "voluntary" turn-ins should be amusing to watch. Kilts will be coming back in style.

So Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho!
Department of* has got to go!

*Well, maybe not the Department of Defense, but no one would miss the rest of them.

Geography Lesson

The moral high ground is NOT located on top of a pile of dead children.

Whiners

An article on Samizdata today links to an article in the guardian
in which the author justifies his position by citing a poet whom I've never heard of who goes on: ---------------

While there are still humanitarian crises such as that in Syria, nobody can justify vast spending on rocketry experiments. That point was made plain in 1970 by the poet Gil Scott-Heron, on his record Whitey On the Moon, which criticized the US for spending millions to send men on a pointless moon adventure while the country’s inner cities languished:

I can’t pay no doctor bills
But whitey’s on the moon
Ten years from now I’ll be payin’ still
While whitey’s on the moon.
------------------

Somewhere in my collection of memorabilia is a job application for the position of cargo specialist on the space shuttle. The education part starts off by asking where the applicant got his or her FIRST bachelors degree, and extends to asking about any post doctoral work. When whitey was walking on the moon there were a whole bunch of us less educated crackers cheering him on from back down here. If this blues singer is bummed that he didn’t get to go, all he had to do was go back to school, major in engineering, learn to fly a plane, preferably jets, and work his way up the hierarchy of test pilots to the position of astronaut. It’s easy and I guarantee you don’t have to be white.
To paraphrase a man who shall remain nameless, “There are those who go to space, and there are those who pay doctor bills. You pay.”

Fun With Headlines - Unexpectedly

If you have a talent for keen observation and clear note taking, you might be qualified to be a scientist. If you don't have the money or inclination to get a PhD, your talents would be useful in the role of say police detective.

If you think this kind of work sounds like fun, but you have no talent for it, take heart: there's always journalism. Case in point would be this gem, found today on Drudge:
Jobless claims unexpectedly fall as job market strengthens...

Or maybe I'm missing something here. It's possible that being unemployed has become so attractive and lucrative that once you get there, you never want to go back. I've met people like that.




Or, as they say on Insty, Fox Butterfield, please call your office.

Trumps Tax Bill - POV

Is it good? Is is bad? Depends on your point of View. EX:

Trucking fleets ordered 32,900 Class 8 trucks, the kind used on long-haul routes, in November, according to ACT Research, which compiles industry statistics. That was up about 70% from a year earlier. - WSJ today

OTOH:

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hammered the Republicans’ tax-code overhaul Monday evening as a culture-shaking economic “armageddon” that would haunt the working class for years to come.

Flanked by other top Democrats in the Capitol, the minority leader blasted Republicans for championing a tax proposal she equated to “the end of the world.” - The Hill

So it's either the end of the world or it isn't. I suppose if your constituents are beggars looking for handouts, and some fellow comes along and offers them all jobs, you'd have to be alarmed. Advice to Congress on entitlement spending:

Dear Congressman:
Look guys and girls, we all know that entitlement spending is out of control and it's mostly your fault for not putting any limits on it to begin with. We also know that if you don't act to fix this, the country's headed for bankruptcy, possibly on YOUR watch. Additionally we understand that there are so many votes tied to getting free money from Washington that if you do anything, however ineffective, you'll lose your seat in your next election and that's if you're lucky enough to not lose your head in the riots, so here's a solution:

Enact Congressional term limits, effective immediately. 12 years in the house and/or 12 in the Senate, then either up or out. Just don't forget to include the golden parachute clause that continues your salary until you croak, tax free. Now you can pass the entitlement reform, save the country, and leave town with lots of money before anyone can connect you to a lamp post. Sound like a plan?

Your helpful constituent
Billll

Of course this probably won't fly with the party leadership who had envisioned their stern but paternal or maternal visages on portraits 20-30 feet square, hanging prominently from the Washington monument, staring at the capitol building to remind the survivors that they all have suicide notes on file in the White House.

Kims Rocket Launches - What's Missing

Launch after launch with all Kims rockets landing solidly in the water and the latest doing so after managing to miss Japan, a large target and not far away.

What I'm noticing is that there never seems to be a target, even a derelict ship or a wayward barge to act as a bulls eye for all these rocket launches. Of course it might be caution on the part of Kims rocket scientists. Bad enough when the rocket explodes prematurely without the additional embarrassment of the inert warhead landing a couple hundred miles off target. Best to tell the boss that the impact was perfect. We were aiming for the exact spot in the middle of the ocean that it came down on.

Kim has more launches scheduled, with the Pacific Ocean the designated target. Watch the news to see if there is so much as a rowboat within 200 miles of the impact points.

QOTD - NYT

In a motion to dismiss Sara Palin's suit for libel, the New York Times argues:

For example, the Complaint alleges that the allegedly false statement of fact that are the subject of the Complaint were contradicted by information already set forth in prior news stories published by the Times. However, these prior stories arguably would only evidence actual malice if the person(s) who wrote the editorial were aware of them.

Which claims that it's unreasonable to expect that the editors at the Times actually read their own paper. Not entirely implausible as the first rule in propaganda is to never begin believing your own propaganda.

This might fly a bit higher if the claim were worded differently. For example: We claim that since everyone knows that the Times is a premier source of fake news, the Complainant should have recognized that the statements concerning her were deliberately false and thus were not to be taken seriously.

See? Now that I could almost believe. It would also help if the paper being sued was the Onion instead of the New York Times.

What Makes America Great

Found at Powerline, this is the kind of thinking that makes America both great and exceptional.

And it's the jackbooted foot of the Obama administration that gets this fellow arrested probably at the behest of the snowplow drivers union.

Journalism: What They Need To Know, What You Need To Know

UNC Chapel Hill has decided that J-school majors don't need to know U.S. History or basic economics.

I'm guessing that it's so newly minted reporters won't disrupt politicians at their press conferences by bursting out laughing at inopportune moments.

People Of The Year

It was announced on Tuesday that President Obama will be on the cover of GQ's annual "Men of the Year" issue.

I suppose if Caitlin Jenner can be Woman Of The Year, then Obama can be Man Of The Year.

Remember when Journalism had standards?

Gun Control Hero Arrested

A South Carolina man whose mission in life seemed to be to keep dangerous guns out of the hands of the irresponsible has been arrested by county police stooges of the NRA who will be putting those hunting rifles powerful sniper rifles and sporting shotguns wide-ranging "street sweeper" killing machines back into circulation. Mr. Nicholson's collection of 7-10,000 firearms will eventually be returned to their original owners whom Mr. Nicholson's associates seem to have forgotten to compensate for the loss.

Barely mentioned here but nonetheless noteworthy is the near complete absence of handguns from this amazing stash. I wonder why that was?

I agree With Bernie Sanders

I've certainly heard enough about Hillary's e-mails. I think she should be given a fair trial and tossed in the Federal joint for 30 years or so. That would eliminate all the headlines about her e-mails. Besides, Nelson Mandela did 27 years in jail before being elected president.